


And For Eternity I Loved You

by Okumen



Series: una notte di luna [2]
Category: Ginyuu Mokushiroku Meine Liebe | Meine Liebe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Character Death, Future Fic, M/M, Soft Tragedy, if it can even be called that, if that's a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 09:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14469780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okumen/pseuds/Okumen
Summary: A whole lifetime has only changed one of them, and finally, the end has come.





	And For Eternity I Loved You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [space_lace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_lace/gifts).



He came in through the open window. A creature of muscle and fur, reaching the second floor with ease. He landed on the floor, scrabbled for purchase for a few moments because despite what he was, he still had a certain lack of grace that likely would never change.

The fur melted away, bones cracked, and instead of paws, hands rested on the edge of the bed. He knelt by the side of the bed, bare knees on wood, and there was sorrow in his eyes.

Ludwig raised a hand that showed his age, with bulging veins and crinkled skin, and cupped his friend’s cheek. It was warm against his palm, soft and smooth to the touch. The man raised his hand to rest it against Ludwig’s, enveloping his hand with his warmth.

He still looked like he was a young man, a recently adult teenager frozen in time. Dark skin, auburn copper hair, startling green eyes. Eighty years and he would not have changed a bit, had it not been for the scar where his throat and shoulder had been torn apart by vicious teeth, and the pointy teeth that were cushioned by his full bottom lip.

“I’m sorry for not visiting for so long,” Eduard murmured, his voice as soft as the look in his eyes. Eighty years later, and the sorrow was evident, even to Ludwig. Ludwig lightly shifted his thumb, brushing it against the swell of Eduard’s cheek. “It’s alright,” he said, and for a moment he didn’t recognize his own voice. For a moment, he almost thought he was a student again. But that was a long time ago, and his voice was very different, now. “I know you can’t resist your wanderlust.”

“I wish I could.” Eduard’s voice and expression were sincere, but Ludwig knew him better than that. “No,” _you only think that you do, it’s what you have convinced yourself_ “and you wouldn’t be you if you did. It’s alright, truly, but I am happy for what you have given me. It is far more than I would have thought possible, when we young.”

Eduard sucked in a breath, a quiet whine catching in his throat. “When we were young, the world was a much different place.” He spoke of it like he didn’t want to think about the present. The present was far too real, far too close, and when they were young, there was still time to dream. There was none of that, now. “It might be freer, more open, now, but...but it was our world. Despite all the flaws, despite how our true selves didn’t belong in that worldview, it was still… It was still our time.”

“Despite how people looked upon people like us, despite what we had to hide and what we couldn’t, with you---with all of you, I was happy. You made me happy. Learning alongside you, it meant so much to me.” He was too old for secrets, now.

“You’re very outspoken today. It’s honestly a little scary.” Eduard hesitated for a short moment. “Are you dying?”

Ludwig snorted, and managed to startle himself. It almost sounded like it once had, so long ago. “I’m nearly a hundred years old and human, of course I’m dying.” He lowered his eyelids half the way, gazing at the man. “If only I had found a cure—”

“You tried, that’s all that matters.” Eduard leaned his face further into Ludwig’s palm, into the worn lines of time that had passed. “And for a realist like you, trying to find a cure for lycanthropy, that must be going against your base set of reality. Values? Both? Your beliefs.” A smile tugged at the corners of Ludwig’s mouth. “Even now, you are somewhat lacking in refinement.” Eduard laughed, quietly, a hint of the heartiness that Ludwig was so familiar with only touching the edges of the sound. “Don’t you know I’m the master of refinement?”

The smile only barely present on Ludwig’s face widened a fraction, and he felt his heart ache for reasons that had nothing to do with his age. “I’m sure you are.”

Still with his hand against Ludwig’s, Eduard raised his other hand from the bed. He leaned against it, carefully balanced so that he wouldn’t topple over, and he pressed his hand gently to Ludwig’s wrinkled cheek. “You look tired. Do you sleep badly?”

“I can’t really do much else. I sleep, and I listen to audio books.” Ludwig sighed, closed his eyes so he could simply _feel_ for a few moments. “I miss being able to read with my own eyes, but the text blurs for me, and glasses only help for a short amount of time.”

Eduard let out a whine, that sounded like it was forced out of him, as if he was being strangled. As if he didn’t want to be reminded of Ludwig’s age. As if he didn’t want to think about the fact that Ludwig already stood at death’s door, simply waiting.

Everyone else was already gone. When Ludwig left, Eduard would be all alone, stuck in a body that never aged, that refused to die.

“I just wish,” Ludwig opened his eyes to look at Eduard, when Eduard pressed words out of lungs and throat that sounded deflated. “I wish that there was more than I could have given you. I-...” He fell silent, his gaze flickering down. The regret was heavy on his tongue.

“Eduard, you have given me plenty. Your never ending fountain of love has saved me more times than you can ever comprehend.”

“Try me,” Eduard said, defiance in his eyes and in his voice. “Tell me. About every time. Never stop. And in return I’ll tell you about every time you have saved me---because you have, even if you doubt my word.”

He didn’t know that Ludwig had been waiting, trying so hard to wait for his only living friend to return, so he could say goodbye one last time.

“I love you, Eduard. I have loved you for such a long time. To have you by my side now, to means so much to me.”

Eduard let out another whine. A whine of regret and heartache. A whine of loss.

“Would you do me a favour?” Ludwig asked. His voice sounded heavy in his ears. He felt tired. He felt Eduard’s nod against his palm. “Kiss me, one last time.”

Eduard bit his lip, fangs piercing skin, skin quickly healing.

He slipped his hands from Ludwig’s skin, leaving the warmth to slowly dissipate in the late summer breeze, and he grasped Ludwig’s hand in both of his. He rose off of one knee, bumped it against the bed frame but barely registered the pain, and he leaned forward. Eduard leaned over Ludwig, and he carefully pressed their lips together. He felt a smile underneath his own, and then he heard how all sounds in the room slowly ceased to exist.

His eyes were wide when he pulled back, and he stared down at the smiling face of his only remaining most precious person. Not remaining any more.

 

 

 

 

A keening sound of anguished canine erupted from Eduard.

He bent forward over the hand clasped between his. Tears fell onto the skin, pale as it ever were and old as it ever would be. He forced himself to cry in silence, even though he wanted to scream out his sorrow in howls of grief and suffering.

But he couldn’t. He had to be silent. Ludwig’s family was in the house, his children and his grandchildren, and their children. They were waiting, they would come to Ludwig’s room to watch over him until he passed over, and they would find him gone, an empty shell.

They could not find a lycanthrope in there as well, no matter how broken up about it he was. So even though it hurt so much that he felt as if he were being torn to shreds, he could not yell out.

But the pain was overwhelming, and forcing it inside was making him choke. It felt as if the creams were at the back of his throat, pushing air up into his cheeks and puffing them up. As if he was going to throw them up the way one threw up bile.

He pressed his tear stained face into the covers, clutching to the hand in his as if he might lose his mind if he ever were to let go.

But he had to, and he did. He rose to his feet, felt the throbbing in his knees subside even though he wished for the pain to stay forever. And he saw a little box wrapped in a yellowed newspaper page, and he picked it up. In shake handwriting, which was so unmistakably Ludwig’s, Eduard’s name was written.

He scratched up the tape, unwrapped the box. 

The ring inside, dangling from a chain, had an inscription on its inside. Eduard’s eyes teared worse than they already were, and his lips moved quietly with the words as he read them in his mind. _’My heart and soul, yours for all eternity’_.

Once in his lifetime, Ludwig proved to be capable of being romantic, and it was too late to tease him about it.

The newspaper page fell to the floor, a crumpled evidence of love and sorrow, together with the box. He leapt out the as the first howl could no longer be contained, and he disappeared into the summer evening.

 

 

 

Silver wasn’t deadly if it only rested against the werewolf’s skin, but it would leave a mark. The ring wasn’t fully silver, and only was a quiet, steady burn against his chest. It felt good to have it there.

The presence of his friend, of his lover, always marking him with its kiss, reminding him that even if he was broken, he was whole.

**Author's Note:**

> Every day is a good day to attempt to break your sister's heart. Even if you intended to make it for her birthday and is late with nearly two months.
> 
> And the Strahl candidate boys were born 1918 so, 100 years is this year.


End file.
